Spraying Special
The crop sprayer is an essential piece of kit for the farm. The sprayer we use is a self propelled machine with a 20m boom width. The sprayer can be fitted with two types of wheels, wide low ground pressure wheels or the narrower Rowcrop wheels. Low ground pressure wheels are typically 50cm wide and are used when crops have not yet emerged or are still very young and will not be damaged by being driven on. Rowcrop wheels are taller and narrower (25cm), providing more clearance height for the sprayer and the ability to drive just on the tramlines. The disadvantage of these wheels is the higher ground pressure and therefore more compaction they apply to the ground. The tramlines are worked out when drilling, a computer in the tractor with the drill is able to work out which rows need to remain un-sown to make tramlines. Our sprayer is a fairly lightweight, low-end machine: weighing in at 4t, it has a 2000L spray tank, 2 wheel drive, and surprisingly a small Landrover engine. There are various types of nozzles which can be used for differing application rates, stages of crop growth and wind speeds.
The boom
The boom on our sprayer is 20m (a 10m arm on each side), it is split into two 4m sections and two 6m sections allowing spot spraying (selective) to be carried out. The boom’s height above the ground can be controlled from the cab along with the tilt of the boom from side to side when the sprayer is driving on sloping ground.
Hadleigh Show
We all had a great day at the Hadleigh Show. Alice showed a British Blue Heifer and a cow with calf at foot and she was overjoyed to receive a 1st and a 2nd prize. Mum and Dad showed the Suffolk Sheep gaining three 1st prizes and a reserve champion. Over all it was a great showing day followed by a few rides on the fair! We will be showing at the Suffolk Show on 1st- 2nd June.
Quail
We have recently receive several large orders for live, point of lay quail so we have bought a new 250 quail egg incubator so that we can hatch more quail in one batch and to provide quail for live bird orders.